Vice President for Academic Affairs, Saint Anselm College
Dr. Sheila Liotta has been the Vice President for Academic Affairs at Saint Anselm College since June of 2022. Previously, she served as the founding dean of the School of Arts & Sciences at Providence College from January of 2009 through June of 2022. Prior to her time as dean, she served as chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry for eight years. She joined the Providence College faculty in 1993.
As VPAA at Saint Anselm College, Dr. Liotta has engaged faculty to make recommendations on strategies for the College to maintain and promote its liberal arts component of its identity to inform academic planning. She has also overseen the launch of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences, the College’s first school, and is working with faculty to expand graduate program offerings across the College through the creation of new programs in strategic areas and the development of infrastructure to support a larger number of graduate students. At Providence College, through the development and support of both new academic programs and the College’s robust core curriculum, a renewed appreciation for the centrality of the liberal arts across the campus was realized during Dr. Liotta’s time as Dean. This helped to facilitate Providence College’s successful application, led by Dr. Liotta, for a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the premier arts and sciences honors society, which was installed in April of 2022.
Dr. Liotta obtained her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Rutgers University and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University. An organic chemist and a strong proponent of undergraduate research, Dr. Liotta supervised thirty-five student researchers in her Providence College laboratory. More recently, she primarily taught a course for non-science majors on contemporary issues in chemistry.
